Walking lift barge

ABSTRACT

A walking lift barge includes a platform having a rotatable member rotatably mounted thereon. A pair of spaced-apart substantially vertical legs extend through the rotatable member. The legs are selectively movable up and down relative to the rotatable member. With the platform supported on one leg, the rotatable member can be rotated around that one leg to move the other leg and the platform laterally.

United States Patent 1 Wefer 1 Nov. 6, 1973 WALKING LIFT BARGE 3,283,516 11/1966 DeLong et al. .6 61/465 [75] Inventor: Kurt Wefer, Cologne, FOREIGN PATENTS 0R APIPLICATIONS Dellbruck, Germany 592,577 1960 Canada 52/65 Assigneer Strabag BalbAG, g e tZ 37l,772 1932 Great Bl'lialn 37/73 G ermany Primary ExaminerJacob Shapiro I Flledi J 1970 Attorney-Meyer, Tilberry and Body [21] Appl. No.: 6,460

, [57] ABSTRACT A walkin lift bar e includes a latform havin a rotat 30 F A l t P t r) t g g P g l 1 gz pglca on "on y 9 O4 268 able member rotatably mounted thereon. A pair of 1 many l 7 spaeed-apart substantially vertical legs extend through the rotatable member. The legs are selectively movable 12 6 up and down relative to the rotatable member. With 58 i h 61/463 the platform supported on one leg, the rotatable mem- I l o earc b ber can be rotated around that one leg to move the Other leg and the platform laterally,

[56] References Cited 10 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures UNITED STATES PATENTS 7/1971 Smulders 61/465 Patented Nov. 6, 1973 3,769,802

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG] INVENTOR KURT WE FER Patented Nov. 6,1973

2 Sheets-Sheet 2',

INVENTOR. KURT WEFER WALKING LIFT BARGE This invention has reference to a walking lift barge the lifted platform of which is movable in different directions by virtue of supports susceptible to raising and lowering provided alternatingly at lifting and holding means.

There is known a walking lift barge of that kind comprising four longitudinal sides of a square lift barge platform being provided with supports which are shiftable in longitudinal direction of the edges, the supports incorporating the legs. With the platform raised, this barge moves on walking because the legs of the two opposite sides of the platform are lifted and the legs of the two other sides are resting on the floor while the platform is pushed forward at the beams. The retracted legs are subsequently lowered, while the legs which have rested on the ground, are lifted thus permitting to redraw the beams in which they are arranged, along the edges of the platform and to return them to their initial position.

This known walking lift barge is disadvantageous for being movable by walking only in two directions being vertical relative to each other. Therefore, it is somewhat difficult to transport them to an exactly predetermined site.

It is the object of the invention to avoid this disadvantage and to provide a walking lift barge of a design permitting to move it by walking in any desired direction.

This problem is solved by the invention by providing always two legs in a rotating rotary member in the lift barge platform, the rotary member itself being rotatable around each of the two legs.

This embodiment offers the advantage of permitting to displace the lift barge platform not only parallelly relative to its longitudinal sides, but also in other directions, e.g. diagonally.

According to the invention, the rotary member can be composed of two semi-cylindrical halves vertically displaceable in opposite directions. As a result thereof, the leg resting on the ground and the half of the rotary member suspended at this leg are not under an eccentric load caused by the other half and the leg suspended to the latter. By contrast, this other half is supported directly at the lift barge platform when the latter rotates around the other leg.

Each leg may be provided with an annular collar fixed at the liftingand holding means and being displaceable in longitudinal direction ofthe leg, said annular collar being capable by means of an annular shoulder to support itself on the rotary member and the rotary member being allowed to support itself rotatably on the annular collar by virtue of a support construction.

As a consequence thereof, each leg may be raised and lowered in any desired position of the rotary member, while the load of the lift barge platform may be transferred to the leg, or the load of the leg may be transferred to the lift barge platform accordingly. In order to ensure that also the rotary member may transfer its load either to the lift barge platform or to the support, the rotary member is backed overhead via a support construction at the lift barge platform, and toward the bottom at a recess at the inner edge of the lift barge platform.

To facilitate rotation of the legs around each other, the movable parts provided rotatably relatively to each other may be supported relatively to each other by the interpolation of backing rolls. It is particularly suitable to design support constructions as brackets fixed at the upper side of the lift barge body and rotary member resp. while the backing rolls running in the brackets are interconnected to form roller chains like a sprocket chain. This embodiment will cause a nearly linear support of the rotary member at the edge of the lift barge platform and of the annular collar on the rotary member resp. thus permitting to also transfer heavy loads in a satisfactory manner.

To ensure that the two halves of the rotary member are freely displaceable in opposite direction without jamming there are provided sliders in the joint between the two rotary member halves.

The present invention will become apparent in connection with the accompanying drawing serving to illustrate it by means of an exemplified embodiment. In the drawing: 7

FIG. 1 is a walking lift barge according to the invention, illustrated by a plan view.

FIG. 2 shows the object of FIG. I seen in a front elevation.

FIG. 3 shows a vertical part-section along III-III of the object according to FIG. 1.

At each of the four corners of a rectangular lift barge platform 10 there is provided a cyllindrical rotary member 11 consisting of two semi-cylindrical halves 11a and 11b. Each of the rotary member halves 11a and 11b guides a leg 12 and 13 resp. displaceable in vertical direction. Each leg is surrounded by an annular collar 14 being suspended at a lifting and holding means 15 which may be clamped at the leg.

The two halves of the rotary member 11a and 11b are displaceable vertically against each other in their vertical plane of separation 16 and they are backed head-on by sliders 17. At their cylindrical periphery they are provided with a recess 18 into which engages the corresponding projection 19 of the lift barge platform. Recess 18 and projection 19 are staggered such as to ensure that in vertical direction between shoulders 20 and 21 there is left an annular opening in which a number of backing rolls are arranged which serve to transfer loads from one half of the rotary member to the lift barge platform.

Along the upper edge of the circular recess 23 in the lift barge platform there is arranged a support construction 24 designed as a bracket. Under the edge 25 hanging over the upper edge of the rotary member 11 there are running numerous backing rolls 26 being interconnected to form a roller chain in the way of a sprocket chain. This roller chain transfers the load from the lift barge platform to at least one half of the rotary member 1 1.

Each of the rotary member halves 11a and 11b is supported with a bracket 27 via backing rollers 26 on one of the annular collars 14. The backing rollers 28 as well as the backing rollers 26 and 22 may be also interconnected to form a roller chain.

Annular collar 14 is fitted with a recess 29 at its bottom part just like rotary member 11, and said recess corresponds to a projection 30 in the rotary member. Annular collar 14 is supported directly by virtue of a shoulder 31 on the corresponding landing 32 of the rotary member.

To ensure the lateral support of the parts rotatably relatively to each other, there are additionally provided numerous horizontal backing rollers 33, being arranged in recesses of the rotary member. Moreover, sliders 34 may be provided between the brackets and the legs.

The walking movement of the lift barge is carried out as follows:

Referring to the position illustrated in FIG. 1 and 2, with legs 13 raised and legs 12 resting on the ground, all of the rotary members 1 1 are rotated simultaneously around legs 12. Lift barge platform is supported by brackets 24 and backing rolls 26 on the rotary member half 11b, which is backed by support-construction 27 and backing rolls 28 on brackets 14 surrounding leg 12 and being suspended at its lifting and holding means 15. Load of legs 13 is transferred from the holding means 15 provided on the bracket coordinated to said leg, to the bracket and from the latter via shoulder 31 and landing 32 to rotary member half 11a which transfers the load via backing rollers 22 to the lift barge platform. Due to the play between the backing rollers and the support construction, rotary member half 11a is displaced in downward direction relatively to rotary member half 11b as is obvious from FIG. 3.

During the rotation of rotary member 11 which may be carried out with known means, the entire lift barge platform executes a rotary motion around the four legs 12 resting on the ground. At the same time the lift barge platform is displaced relative in its plane. This rotary motion may be interrupted in any desired position of the lift barge platform. The legs 13 are subsequently lowered and legs 12 are retracted, so that lift barge is now standing on legs 13 and may be rotated around them.

The maximum length of path is obtained by turning rotary members around a leg respectively through 180 and by subsequently changing the function of the legs. Subject to the initial position of the rotary member the lift barge may be moved in the most different directions, as for instance in diagonal direction according to the initial position shown in FIG. 1.

The rotation around the legs resting on the ground may be effected by the known rotating devices which are coordinated to each of the four walking devices. It is also possible to move the lift barge by virtue of its anchor jacks if the ropes are fixed at statuary points ashore or in the bottom of the sea.

The invention is not restricted to the exemplified embodiment, but numerous further modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. In particular, the lift barge may not only be used as a floating barge in the water, but also as a working platform operating on land.

I claim:

l. A walking lift barge comprising; a platform,.walking support means for said platform including a rotatable member rotatably mounted on said platform, a pair of spaced-apart substantially vertical legs extending through said rotatable member, said legs having bottom ends, raising and lowering support means for selectively moving each of said legs up and down relative to said rotatable member and for selectively rotatably supporting said rotatable member on each of said legs, said legs being alternately positionable with said bottom end of one of said legs engaging a supporting surface and said bottom end of the other of said legs spaced above said bottom end of said one leg, support means for supporting said platform on said rotatable member, and power means for rotating said rotatable member relative to said platform and around said one leg to laterally shift said platform and said other leg.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein said rotatable member includes a pair of semi-cylindrical members and one of said legs extends through each of said semicylindrical members.

3. The device of claim 2 wherein said semicylindrical members are displacably mounted for substantially vertical displacement in opposite directions.

4. The device of claim 1 wherein each of said legs has an annular collar therearound adjacent said raising and lowering support means, said collar being displacable longitudinally of said leg, annular shoulder means for supporting said collar on said rotatable member, and support construction means for rotatably backing said rotatable member on said collar.

5. The device of claim 1 wherein said platform includes annular shoulder means for rotatably supporting said rotatable member.

6. The device of claim 1 wherein said rotatable member includes a pair of annular collars and said legs extend through said collars, said rotatable member being rotatable around said collars.

7. The device of claim 6 and further including a plurality of rolls for rotatably supporting said rotatable member on said platform and said annular collars.

8. The device of claim 1 wherein said platform has an upper side and said support means for supporting said platform on said rotatable member includes bracket means mounted on said upper side of said platform and backing roll means interposed between said bracket means and said rotatable member.

9. The device of claim 8 wherein said backing roll means includes interconnected rolls forming'a roller chain.

10. The device of .claim 1 wherein said rotatable member comprises a pair of semi-cylindrical halves, joint means between said pair of semi-cylindrical halves, and slider means in said joint means. 

1. A walking lift barge comprising; a platform, walking support means for said platform including a rotatable member rotatably mounted on said platform, a pair of spaced-apart substantially vertical legs extending through said rotatable member, said legs having bottom ends, raising and lowering support means for selectively moving each of said legs up and down relative to said rotatable member and for selectively rotatably supporting said rotatable member on each of said legs, said legs being alternately positionable with said bottom end of one of said legs engaging a supporting surface and said bottom end of the other of said legs spaced above said bottom end of said one leg, support means for supporting said platform on said rotatable member, and power means for rotating said rotatable member relative to said platform and around said one leg to laterally shift said platform and said other leg.
 2. The device of claim 1 wherein said rotatable member includes a pair of semi-cylindrical members and one of said legs extends through each of said semi-cylindrical members.
 3. The device of claim 2 wherein said semi-cylindrical members are displacably mounted for substantially vertical displacement in opposite directions.
 4. The device of claim 1 wherein each of said legs has an annular collar therearound adjacent said raising and lowering support means, said collar being displacable longitudinally of said leg, annular shoulder means for supporting said collar on said rotatable member, and support construction means for rotatably backing said rotatable member on said collar.
 5. The device of claim 1 wherein said platform includes annular shoulder means for rotatably supporting said rotatable member.
 6. The device of claiM 1 wherein said rotatable member includes a pair of annular collars and said legs extend through said collars, said rotatable member being rotatable around said collars.
 7. The device of claim 6 and further including a plurality of rolls for rotatably supporting said rotatable member on said platform and said annular collars.
 8. The device of claim 1 wherein said platform has an upper side and said support means for supporting said platform on said rotatable member includes bracket means mounted on said upper side of said platform and backing roll means interposed between said bracket means and said rotatable member.
 9. The device of claim 8 wherein said backing roll means includes interconnected rolls forming a roller chain.
 10. The device of claim 1 wherein said rotatable member comprises a pair of semi-cylindrical halves, joint means between said pair of semi-cylindrical halves, and slider means in said joint means. 